(Don’t be afraid to use classic methods of persuasion in your new media projects)

“As
a scientist and a researcher I’ve seen a lot of scams and unfulfilled
promises. In this case, I’ve performed the experiments and analyzed the
research myself. And let me tell you - this product really amazes me”

I find the predictability of humanity very fascinating. I recently read the The Power of Persuasion (overall,
pretty good book, although unnecessarily verbose), which investigates
the effect the perception of authority has on people’s trust. A lot of
the concepts in the book are easily transferable to how we interpret
and determine whether or not to trust web pages on the Internet.

What makes a website trustworthy or authoritative? Is it the quality
of its content? Its page layout? The author’s opinion on their own work
history? The domain name? Maybe it is the reader base / Digg count /
Google pagerank rating?

I would argue all the above mentioned factors have an effect on a
web site’s trustworthiness (truthiness?), with the importance of each
factor falling in relation to the higher the level of the surfer’s
technical and media competency.

Do you trust what I have to say just because I call myself a “new media blogger”?

Personally, I would prefer it if people began judging online content
with a little more scrutiny. The number of wildly successful blogs
which do no more than rehash other’s writings and concepts is mind
blowing. The authors of these blogs gain instant authority on a
subject; some evening going as far as becoming public speakers on their
select topics, even though they perform a task which is only slightly
more complicated than that of a standard piece of RSS Newsreader software.
The most successful go on to organize their own conferences and become
the gods of their field - all by referencing the work of others.

Businesses and new media strategists can learn a lot about
interactive media from these individuals (as well as those “as seen on
TV” product salesmen for that matter): the tools of persuasion are just
as useful online as off.

And just for the record, I do appreciate and regularly read many blogs which do no more than aggregate content